This year IBPS had advertised 4,336 vacant posts for Probationary officers in 17 participating banks.

Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) begins PO prelim exam today. This year IBPS had advertised 4,336 vacant posts for Probationary officers in 17 participating banks. The selection process for PO post involves a preliminary exam, which starts today, followed by a main exam for shortlisted candidates, and a personal interview. Both the prelim and main examination are conducted in computer-based mode.

According to Vijay Jha, academic head banking at ‘Gradeup' the paper was moderately difficult. Questions from quantitative aptitude and reasoning ability were difficult while the difficulty level of English section was moderate to tough.

In reasoning paper, there was no question from syllogism or questions based on logical argument that uses deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion, the experts said.

The IBPS PO prelim exam is qualifying in nature. Marks scored in the prelim will be used only to shortlist candidates for the main exam and have no bearing on the final selection.

The prelim exam will be conducted in multiple shifts on October 12, 13, and 19. Each shift will be of one hour duration in which a candidate will be required to solve 100 questions spanning three sections. There would be 20 minutes sections duration for each section.

The three sections in the IBPS PO prelim exam are English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, and Reasoning Ability. English language section will have 30 questions, and rest two sections will have 35 questions each. Quantitative Aptitude, and Reasoning Ability sections will be bilingual, i.e. the questions will be in Hindi and English both.

For each correct answer candidates will be awarded 1 mark, and 0.25 marks will be deducted for each wrong answer.

Candidates appearing for IBPS PO prelim exam today or in the coming days can watch this space for paper review and expected cut off.